Deal guides
Know what your deal needs before you call.
Every guide works through a real-looking deal with the numbers shown, so you can check each step against your own. The lender figures are sourced and dated, and each guide says where the numbers come from.
Flipping, from offer to resale
Value the finished house, budget the work and know the cash you need before you sign.
How to calculate ARV: the number that decides your flip loanAfter-repair value is what the finished house will sell for, proved with closed sales of renovated homes. Pick the comps, adjust each one to your house, land on a single figure, then see what the lender's valuation and its 70–80% cap do to the loan.12-minute read →Rehab budget for lenders: the scope of work that gets funded, and the lines that get cutLenders finance up to 100% of the rehab, but only the budget they approve, and only after the work is done. How to write the scope of work, what reviewers strip out, and how a $125,280 budget becomes five draws.11-minute read →Cash needed to flip a house: what a first flip takes, and what it takes after fiveOn a $190,000 flip with a $64,000 rehab, a first-time flipper needs about $82,200 lined up and an investor with five flips about $61,600. Here's where each dollar goes: down payment, points and closing costs, the rehab you pay for before each draw, six months of carry, and the reserves lenders check.10-minute read →Hard money loan requirements: the deal has to qualify before you doEleven lenders' published rules from October 2026, sorted the way an underwriter reads a file: the numbers on the house, the cash you can prove, your score and background, your track record and your entity. Then one deal run against four rulebooks, and the packet that gets a file to closing.12-minute read →Fix and flip loan rates: advertised from 7.75%, but the typical non-bank loan paid 10.45%What twelve lenders published in October 2026, what borrowers actually paid in the 2025 federal data, how far your experience tier, score, loan size, scope and state move the price, and one $228,000 flip priced at three tiers from closing to payoff.11-minute read →
How the money works
Points, sizing rules, closing timelines and what happens when a short-term loan comes due.
How hard money loans work: you borrow against the deal, and the deal has a deadlineA hard money loan is priced on the property and your way out of it, not your paycheck. Here's how the rate, points, interest-only payments and balloon fit together, what the lender actually underwrites, and one rehab loan run from closing to payoff.11-minute read →Closing an investor loan fast: the deal funds when the slowest item clearsHard money and bridge lenders publish closings in 7–14 days. Rental loans qualified on DSCR (debt service coverage ratio: how many times the monthly rent covers the monthly payment) take 2–5 weeks. Whether you hit either depends on five tracks: valuation, title, insurance, entity documents and draw set-up.11-minute read →Bridge loan requirements: the house must be ready, the cash verified and the exit already workingWhat a bridge underwriter checks on a 1–4 unit investment property, from the condition grade to the extension fee. Published rules from Roc, Civic, Lima One, Kiavi, LendingOne and OfferMarket as of October 2026, then one rent-ready purchase sized under three of them.12-minute read →Bridge loan exit strategies: choose the way out before you take the loan, and price the delayEvery bridge loan is underwritten on how it ends. Here are the three exits — sell, refinance into a loan sized on DSCR (debt service coverage ratio: how many times the monthly rent covers the monthly payment), or lease up first — what a lender looks for in each, and what a late exit costs.11-minute read →LTV vs LTC vs ARV: three yardsticks size your loan, and the smallest result winsEvery investor loan is measured against today’s value, your cost, the finished value, or a mix of them. What each ratio divides by, the limits lenders published in October 2026, and one $300,000 flip run through all three so you can see which one binds.11-minute read →Investor loan points and fees: a point costs more the shorter you hold the loanPoints, underwriting, draw, extension and exit fees all land on the same deal. What lenders published in October 2026, how to turn points into a rate you can compare, and the all-in cost of one flip loan, line by line.11-minute read →Gap funding for real estate deals: the second loan your first lender may not allowGap money covers what your rehab loan doesn't: the down payment, closing costs, the first phase of work. Here's who provides it, what funders published in 2026, why so many first-lien lenders refuse to share the house, what can go wrong, and the ways to close the gap with one loan.11-minute read →Proof of funds with a loan in the deal: show your cash, and show the lender behind the restSellers and their agents want to know you can close. With an investor loan, that takes two documents: verified cash for your share and a letter from a real lender for the loan. What each one has to show, what a lender can honestly put in writing before it values the property, how to package it with an offer, and the fake proof-of-funds schemes aimed at investors.10-minute read →
Buy, fix, rent, refinance
One deal worked end to end, and the refinance that decides how much cash comes back.
The BRRRR method step by step: one house from offer to refinance, with every dollar countedBuy, rehab, rent, refinance, repeat. Here one $132,000 house goes through all five stages: a hard money loan to buy and renovate, a lease, then a 30-year refinance sized on the new value and on DSCR (debt service coverage ratio): what you get when you divide a property's monthly rent by its monthly loan payment. You'll see what goes in, what comes back and what stays in the deal.12-minute read →Refinance after rehab: four limits size the new loan, and the smallest one winsWhen the work is done, a 30-year rental loan pays off the hard money. Four limits set its size: the appraisal times the LTV cap, your credit tier, a cost-basis cap if you're early, and DSCR (debt service coverage ratio), a property's monthly rent divided by the monthly loan payment it has to carry. The lowest one is your loan, shown here on a duplex from payoff to cash in hand.12-minute read →
Holding it as a rental
Run the rent against the full payment before you make the offer.
Building from the dirt up
How build money is released, inspected and charged interest.
Construction draw schedule: the build is paid in arrears, one inspected milestone at a timeYour construction loan closes with most of its money held back. How the budget becomes a draw schedule, what each draw has to prove, how retainage and timing shape your cash, and what interest on drawn funds is worth on a real-looking spec build.11-minute read →Spec home construction loans: size the loan on cost, and size the reserve on the saleA spec home is built to sell before anyone has agreed to buy it. How investor construction lenders size that loan in October 2026, what a lot you already own is worth to them, who counts as an experienced builder, and a full budget showing why the months after the house is finished cost the most.13-minute read →
Already have the contract? Skip the reading and send us the deal.
Fund My Deal